Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/165

105 And it all went into each other's hearts.

Leonard, the elder by just eighteen months,

Was two years taller: 'twas a joy to see,

To hear, to meet them!—From their house the School

Was distant three short miles—and in the time

Of storm and thaw, when every water-course

And unbridged stream, such as you may have noticed

Crossing our roads at every hundred steps,

Was swoln into a noisy rivulet,

Would Leonard then, when elder boys perhaps

Remained at home, go staggering through the fords,

Bearing his Brother on his back. I've seen him,

On windy days, in one of those stray brooks,

Ay, more than once I've seen him mid-leg deep,

Their two books lying both on a dry stone

Upon the hither side: and once I said,

As I remember, looking round these rocks

And hills on which we all of us were born,

That God who made the great book of the world

Would bless such piety—

.

It may be then—

.

Never did worthier lads break English bread!